Eritrea jailed 'at least 10,000' political prisoners: Amnesty

Eritrea's hardline regime has jailed at least 10,000
political prisoners, many in "unimaginably atrocious conditions",
rights group Amnesty International said in a report Thursday criticising the
situation in the Red Sea state.

With political opposition banned, independent media quashed
and religious minorities targeted, the ex-rebel government uses a system of
underground cells and shipping containers to house the prisoners, the report
read.

"The government has systematically used arbitrary
arrest and detention without charge to crush all opposition, to silence all
dissent, and to punish anyone who refuses to comply with the repressive
restrictions it places on people's lives," said Claire Beston, Amnesty's
Eritrea researcher.

The report says "at least 10,000" prisoners have
"disappeared into secret and incommunicado detention" in the Horn of Africa
nation, but warns it is impossible to know the exact figure.

The report was released ahead of Eritrea's celebrations of
20 years of independence on May 24, which followed an overwhelmingly vote by
the people to split from arch-foe Ethiopia after years of bitter war.

Eritrean rebels battled far better equipped Ethiopian troops
-- backed first by the United States, then the Soviet Union -- for three
decades until victory in 1991, which was followed by a referendum two years
later.

A subsequent border conflict with Ethiopia from 1998-2000
still simmers, which analysts say Asmara uses as an excuse for its continued
iron-rule.

"Twenty years on from the euphoric celebrations of
independence, Eritrea is one of the most repressive, secretive and inaccessible
countries in the world," Beston added.

Opposition parties are banned and anyone who challenges
President Issaias Afeworki is jailed without trial, often in the harshest of
conditions.

Reporters Without Borders lists Eritrea below North Korea as
the worst country in the world for press freedom.

"In the vast majority of cases, the prisoners' families
are not informed of their whereabouts, and often never hear from their relative
again after they are arrested," Amnesty added. "Torture for
punishment, interrogation and coercion is widespread."